I've only been into hi-fi for a few months now and even with this short exposure I don't think anything would surprise me anymore. |
But some of you have thousand dollar interconnects right? Is it legit for those with $50 RCA cables (using some right now) to make fun of you and call you foolish for wasting your money?
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I've said this before but I'll say it again because it is telling.
When I hear that someone paid $1000 for a pair of interconnect cables I think it is nuts. (Although the ones I have may have been close to that.) They, the buyer, thinks it is great and made a huge difference. And I can't say he's wrong.
So when $24,000 interconnects come up we both think its nuts. But why? Where does the reality stop and the insanity begin? We all tend to think the insanity starts just a few miles north of what we're willing to spend.
I suspect there are audiophiles out there who aren't members of this site and would never condescend to even have a discussion with someone who does not understand the real, tangible, music and life altering value of $24,000 cables. If we can't hear it, well, you know........... |
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I believe the title of this post will be the title of the history book that chronicles the great societal uprising and revolution."
I totally agree. Let's start it now. There are a lot more of us in the $1000 interconnect population than in the $24,000 interconnect population. We have them outnumbered. It is time for us to rise up, find them, take their cables and their snooty audio gear and level the playing field. We have them outnumbered....all we need to do is find them? ...........nothing is over until I say its over, was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Who's with me? |
I disagree with the idea that if you have lots of money you should be prone to, obligated to or dumb enough to buy things that are idiotic. Granted, being ultra-rich does seem to make some people very stupid. But to pay $24,000 for an interconnect would require, in my opinion, both lots of wealth and a healthy dose of stupid too. Of course, if I felt the same way about interconnects that cost 1/10th of that it would probably offend any number of people on this forum.
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"....the easiest way to appear foolish is to talk about things you know little or nothing about."
Agree with this sentiment. But as with so many things there is a corollary. In other words, there will always be things that defy common sense and belief (and please, I'm not saying this about any specific interconnects necessarily, mine were pretty high dollar). But if someone tells me they connect their components with live rattlesnakes then it is pretty fair to have an opinion regarding the sound quality and safety in regard to that phenomenon whether I've listened to live rattlesnake interconnects or not and whether or not I understand the electrical properties of live rattlesnakes.
And I'm about as ready to believe in the redeeming quality of $24,000 interconnects as I am live rattlesnake interconnects. |
The Stig crashed one on Top Gear. Koenigsegg left the rear spoiler off for higher top speed. The Stig spun it and crashed. I thought it was very telling about the influence of that show that Koenigsegg immediately sent them another one with the spoiler on.
The price tag on the Agera is 2.1 million. I might have missed the 10 million dollar one. |
@graystoke:
At least most of the other high dollar cables are really really pretty. Of course one has to ask oneself why are they pretty? They are cords after all. They mostly hang out the back of otherwise pretty ugly gear.
So one the one hand if I'm spending huge bucks on cables I guess I want them to look expensive.
On the other hand, butt ugly cables for $100,000+ like the ones you linked too actually lends them some credibility. They don't have to look good to be worth it!
And that brings up two other observations:
1) If I'm going to buy ultra high end audio gear that requires, no, demands, $24,000 interconnects then by god I want those gorgeous uber techno things hanging out the FRONT of my equipment where I can admire them and point them out to my friends. Of course, on the practical side of things I kind of wish the cables were attached on the front of all components. Getting to those things in the back can be a real pain. And what a boon that would be to the cable market! If all cables stuck out into the room we'd want even average cables to look nice.
2) Second, I've been watching some videos on how to make your own cables. As best I can tell the prime motivation seems to be to make something that looks cool since in most of them they are using good quality but otherwise fairly pedestrian copper wire. All they do is pull some pretty tech-flex over it and add banana plugs or RCAs. It is certainly possible that the tech-flex does more than I'm aware of. |
@jsautter In my world people who believe in unbelievable things are called fools.
The point of that (in kind) response is simply to point out that there is no foolishness at all in deciding not to pursue something that does not make sense and has no credible science behind it ($24 000 interconnect), especially not based on the recommendations of unknown people on the internet. The fact that you have to attack and insult people who don’t share your views is pretty telling in my opinion.
I use live and extremely rare rattlesnakes to connect my DAC and pre-amp and the results are wonderful. And if you doubt that but haven’t tried it you are a fool, right? Or maybe just a "tourist"? Maybe you’ll claim that’s an ad absurdum argument since certainly no one uses rattlesnakes. But have you tried the $24,000 cables mentioned by the OP? Do you doubt at all that they are worth every single penny? If so....again, the word "tourist" seems to fit. |
@jsautter "What I do know is that I have heard major differences in cables and in some cases have heard cables that sell for a few thousand dollars that soundly trounced cables from some of the above that cost over 10K."
What you have given us is a testimony. And based on the fact that few if any of us know anything actually verifiable about you there is no reason for us to trust your testimony. Now, it would be foolish of me to argue with you about what you heard and didn't hear. That's like arguing with someone about their favorite color. But it is not "foolish", nor does it make one a "tourist"( your words) to doubt testimony we read on the internet. It would be foolish to do otherwise.
And the thing is, other folks with equally good internet credentials as you have tried various cables of various prices and do not hear a difference.
So when I'm confronted with a claim for a phenomenon that may not have good, reproducible objective support and in some cases defies common sense, then in terms of a rational approach it makes more sense to accept the testimony of those who have tested and not experienced the phenomenon than those who have tested it and did experience it. It is a fine line because we're dealing with super weak evidence. We could be dead wrong but it is not "foolish" to approach it that way.
And if there is no point at which someone will say that they can no longer suspend rational belief.....like when confronted with $22,000 interconnects then it is also not foolish to suspect that they may have approached $1000 interconnects with the same suspension of rationality. Again, we might be wrong, but not foolish.
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